Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-05
SUFFERING IN THE WEST

THE GAZETTE prints to-day further tes-
timony of the actual condition of the
west, in the shape of resolutions adopted
II a public meeting at Palo Pinto. The
state of Texas and its people should face
| the truth of this matter, regardless of the
natural resentment at mischievous exag-
gerations. There is privation and want
| in certain counties that demand immedi-
ate relief, and the truth concerning il
should be told in the interest of suffering
humanity. The truth will not only result
in giving bread to those who need it, but
it will extract the mischief from any ex-
aggeration. But for the wholesale false
hood that people in Texas were suffer
ing by the hundreds of thousands, those
who were actuated by selfish interests
would not have been able to create the
impression that no suffering at all ex-
listed. But the truth is being made mani
fest, and Just IS THE GAZETTE insisted
in the outset: there is suffering which
imperatively calls for immediate aid, but it
is limited to certain counties, and in those
counties was due to special conditions.
Some time prior to the Albany conven-
ton, the proceedings of which were
printed in THE GAZETTE Sunday, this
paper instituted an inquiry in certain
western counties for the truth, regard
less of consequences. The resolution
requesting THE GAZETTE to print the
Albany resolutions was due to the knoWl-
edge of the members of the convention
that this paper was seeking the truth, the
whole nth and nothing but the
truth, concerning the effects of the
drouth in certain counties. The
testimony of the Albany convention has
been so far supplemented in THE GA
zETTE by reports Of Mr.. B. L. Orrick
from Stephens county, and of Mr.. G. h.
Crozier from Young county.
Inspired by tn. GAzETTE's request for
the truth and all the truth, Mr.. Crozier
of Graham Investigated the matter and
found that $50 families In his county ''are
in destitute circumstances without means
of support, and who can get no employ
ment." And Mr.. Crozier adds: "THE
GAZETTE correspondent has no prejudice
or bias III the affair, but until now be-
lieved with many others that the reports
of the condition of the drouth sufferers
in Young county had been greatly ex-
aggerated." What Mr.. CroZier says of
himself is true of hundreds of others in
the very counties where the restitution
existed; but day by day, as the signs of
the distress became more apparent, the
truth forced itself on men and, although
perilously late, movements were inaugu-
rated to ask that aid which the people of
the counties were no longer able to rem
der their destitute neishbors.
Yesterday, R. E. Hendry, county judge
of Paio Pinto county, and formerly men,
Der of the legislature from Chero-
kee county, was in Fort Worth
en- route to Austin in behalf of the suffer-
ers. A GAZETTE representative sought
and obtained an interview with Judge
Hendry that lasted several hours. THE
GAZETTE, presuming on tie personal
friendship that existed, asked for the
truth, its details and the proofs of it.
Judge Hendry freely admitted that he,
with very many others, did not credit the
first reports of the suffering in his own